Again I suck at the "naming" and introducing part of a thread. Kweh... Anyway, this isn't really meant to be read end to end in one sitting, but rather to exist as a reference for if you need a program, want to try something different, or need some fairly sound general advice. I'd more than welcome anything relevant to the first post in the thread myself (considering it matches the topic); however, do know that we have a stuck thread for people who want critique and/or advice on something, and it may fit better there depending on what it is.

Throughout the last year and a half (or so), I've been trying to pull together a fairly nice resource set for art and where to obtain references and tutorials. After countless struggles trying to figure things out and a lot of delays posting my artwork - including Ubuntu's love of crashing with a stable kernel for odd reasons - I've compiled a list that I hope would be helpful to anyone needing resources, and sorted by topic.

For the sake of argument, the phrase "free and open-source" here doesn't refer to FOSS, but rather a free-program that happens to be open-source. To be clear, "gratis", not "libre" is meant here.

Likewise, I cannot possibly know everything... This is just a list of things that I've tried, like, or am well aware of, with some embellishments contributed from forum users before I was locked from editing the post at the time limit.

ScribLinkOnline collaborative drawing app. Based on a sketchpad concept.

- For coders and people not afraid of command lines -

ImageMagickNice set of command line tools to work with images, often found as a backend on servers.

In C++, the Generic Image LibraryProvides a nice abstract interface for dealing with images. Does not have a lot of functions beyond the basics - it's a header and basic function set, not a full suite!

In Java, Java2DThe most stable API that I'm aware of. It's used in my college at times, but I have no personal experience with it.

Cross-Language on Windows, Direct2d's APIGenerally, the best wrapper is for .Net, but a bit of searching can be found for other languages as well.

Cross-platform and language, OpenGLOne of two things that I would say has been ported to nearly everything, and understandable after you get the basics down.It is indeed industry-standard for a background to handwritten processing for both 2D and 3D images. Wrappers can be found for virtually any language used in industrial settings.

Cross-platform and language, SDLThe other library that has been ported to nearly every architecture with wrappers in most major languages. It focuses more on game-development necessicities than anything else, however.

Cross-platform and language, GEGLGood but far from completeMade for non-destructive editing and has quite a few wrappers officially supported.

2D Animation Programs

- Free and open source -

PencilAn animation package I highly recommend for tablet artists.Focused on tablet users and good at a natural look and feel without compromising features.

GIMP-GAPAKA, the GIMP Graphics Animation Package.It's a bit odd, but it lets you treat layers as frames in an image.Insanely flexible once you get your bearings.

Synfig StudioA personal favourite, designed to be industry strength, highly capable and based on a strong graphics program.

KtoonNot a clue, but it's the last one listed in my package manager.(I don't like KDE or QT4 ~ it's meant for both in the *nix realm.)

Anime StudioFocuses on a skeleton method for animations.Easy and fast... But remember: The tool doesn't make the artist.

- For coders and people not afraid of command lines -

Mencoder/FFMPEG (See Wikipedia Article.)Command line encoders for video, more than capable of transforming a series of frames into a video.It is ill-advised to use the programs as if they were separate entities - they're meant to work together.

SynfigThe backend to Synfig Studio.I've never used it, but I can assure you that it must be worth something if Synfig Studio is built on it.

In actual code, animation is viewed as a transition between 2-d images over time ~ therefore, to create an animation, you need a clocking mechanism, a way to handle image files, and a bit of research into how to write the code. Also, due to the simplicity to extend graphics libraries to include at least rudiments for animation, most major 2-d libraries will have some support for handling the repetitive parts of creating animations for you. See SDL, OpenGL, and GIL in these regards for ones I know include this or have extensions for it, as well as Direct2D for one I'd be baffled over if it didn't include it.

Flash, in general

Flash is actually a programming language for interactive (primarily web) applications and therefore not restrained to just animations. If you've played any flash games, you should be aware of this. This listing is for what I'm aware of that's capable of Flash coding or creation... But I'm not so knowledgable on the animation aspect of it.

- Free and open source -

From the 2D animation section, Synfig Studio is more than capable of outputing to SWF with native translations for vector images. Let me stress my support for that program... STRESS STRESS STRESS.

- Commercial -Adobe Flash CatalystHad to get it out of the way.Flash is an Adobe managed standard, so it's assumable that they have the best tools.

SWFToolsPrimarily command-line driven.Sort of like a compiler/checker/decompiler for flash sources.This is my favorite toolset for decompilation if I want media out of a flash game/animation.

From the 2D animation section, I'm aware of Mencoder/FFMPEG being able to encode to .flv and .h264 within a .swf container, audio streams in varying formats. However, I've never actually tried using these features, so "enter at your own risk".

Pixel Based Art

I do consider this a valid art form (I'm a videogame design major, derp!), but think that MSPaint from Vista backwards and the pencil tool in most "better" drawing packages/apps is the way to go. There are a handful of more-focused programs I'm aware of, but you sincerely can't go wrong with normal drawing tools. (Flip on a 1x1 pixel grid and flip off snapping, sincerely.)

3D Modelling and/or Animation

- Free and open-source -BlenderProbably the best for open-source, but the interface is difficult for beginners to pick up and generally puts them off.Consider asking in the community for lessons from a guru - it makes things go a lot faster if you want to learn.

Art of IllusionTo me, sort of like Blender with a better interface, but not nearly as capable for coding or animation.I tend to model in Art of Illusion, struct/animate/program in Blender.

OpenFXUsed to be one of my favourites, though I've now moved on to more esoteric things.

- Free -

Anim8tor3d program that's a bit dated but still called useful by a lot of people around online.

- Commercial -

Autodesk Maya/3DS MaxWell known and loved by most amateurs at my college.Often recommended to me over Blender due to the simplicity of interface.

PoserBasically, to me, the Furry equivalent to Autodesk Maya.I don't really like it, due to the oddities of how it works and how hard it is to make new figures for.

- For coders/those not afraid of the command line -

Unfortunately, the disease of "do one thing and do it well" runs rampant in 3d design... So it will take several tools to do a job that you could likely do with a single frontend, though the bright side is that most of them are made to work well together.

And, again: OpenGL and SDL are good cross-language and platform libraries for almost anything you could want. No, really.

A caution before trying the tutorials from any book or site: it isn't hard to take a tutorial and learn how to draw that exact image, but then you're stuck with that image and nothing else in your repetoir. When faced with a tutorial, learn the image if you want, but if you want to improve overall as an artist then learn the underlying concepts as well - space, weight, balance figure, proportion, construction, weight, composition, so on and so forth. It's often easier to start as an appreciator of art analyzing these elements than it is to try to learn and apply them at the same time. Your call, but the best piece of advice about copying characters that I was never given, and hence posted here.

- Comic/Manga/Webcomic -

Drawfurry's Comic sectionFocused pretty broadly amongst the "how"s useful for about any project, but geared mostly at beginners.

Neon Dragon ArtAgain, slim pickings but worth a check.As of this writing, sadly under reconstruction.

This listPretty well covers everything I have to say about pixel art and about that much more.

Any image sharing site with the right coercion and search terms. Try "<series/character> reference sheet", "<series/character> model sheet", "<series/character> character sheet", and/or "<series/character> cleanup model" for a place to start. If you find something you know you'll want later, always bookmark or save it!

Those search strings are also usable on Google Images, and likely usable on similar search engines.

Good advice that I wish people would have told me when I started again

After trying to go from Crayola to PrismaColor, I can say honestly to stick at least in the tool-type you're used to, and that "good tools does not a good artist magically make". I can do better work with a $4 pack of Crayolas than an $80 tin of soft-core PrismaColors. I can do a lot more with a $2 engineer's pen than a $15 manga or technical pen set... And that's nothing to do with the quality of the products, but rather what I'm used to.

Quality generally takes a hit with price. PrismaColors have proven to me, when I tested them under a lamp in a biology lab over a couple days of exposure, that they can withstand full-spectrum light better than Crayolas can. This means that they won't fade nearly as quick and stand up better to natural sunlight... Other things you get at higher prices will likely have such better things about them, and it's worth checking into if you'd like to know the benefits.

If you're a traditional artist that scans and posts colored work online, be very careful about your colors. Compare the sheet you create to the scanned image - especially if you have a mass-market scanner. Generally, the colors won't match very well. Double that for photo-reactive colors, triple for ones that glow under a blacklight, quadruple for any material with notable texture, and quintuple for colors that have interesting additives - glitter, gel tends to give me problems, the "metallic" colors from most companies. In order of scale, they have things that are hard to reproduce by scanning because they rely on the physical nature of the medium.

If you're like me and constantly open things to lose faith in yourself and close them without completing things, do what I'm doing and don't open them until you're sure you can do them. Never feel an obligation to "request"-based work - it doesn't pay the bills and it's something you're doing for free.

An artist that has outrageous demands, like retaining full rights - including characters - of a commission is no fun to deal with. An artist with no sympathy to reasonable accommodation - such as non-artists who would almost have to provide a text-based reference sheet - is cutting out a figurative majority of their potential audience and/or customers. An artist that is lazy, slow, or non-responsive tends to not be favored unless they have legitimate reasons for being as such. In the last case, taking fewer jobs at a time or letting people know you like to take your time would go a thousand miles to the good.

How nice you treat your requesters/watchers/customers should always start at "as if an unmet person that you know is a friend". From there, it should move directly in proportion to how much of a pain they are, how much they're worth to you, and how they treat you. Though this example is not in art, it's not uncommon for computing people in the private sector to upmark the prices on jobs that cause them stress, because nobody is worth feeling like crap over when you go home - especially if you don't ask for it.

Don't oversell yourself, and don't undersell. "I'm a beginning artist, and here's my artwork for style examination" is much better than "I can do anything you throw at me". "I don't like pornography and especially hate Sonic fan service" is better than "I'll do anything you'd like". "I've been doing art my entire life almost, and here's a few pieces if you want to know how my art looks" is better than "I consider myself to suck horribly, but people seem to disagree".

Especially to beginners and most people I've ever heard complain about a lack of watchers/followers on dA and FA - your fans will find you in time. Don't let culture and what people want dictate your artwork, because we have more than enough of all the same things floating around. It's not hard to find stuff that gets fav'd on FA that most people wouldn't show their parents - but it's getting more and more difficult to find artists that manage to stand the lures of selling out against themselves. (Give the people you think are fine now enough time, or examine big names when they were just starting to see this point.)

Art is for the artist. Critics are always going to exist - ignore the blatantly disrespectful ones and accept those that try to help by giving you advice with references or redlines. Never say "no critique, please!" if you're going to put a piece of artwork online - having it where it can be seen is an open invitation for people to say what they are going to say about it, and one of the hazards of being an artist. Expect half the world to hate you without giving you a chance to explain yourself. Fandoms are made of drama - deal with it (by which I mean, ignore it when it tries to start) or get away from it.

You don't really know who someone is online related to who they are in real life. I might be a 20-odd year old software engineer/engineer/lawyer's assistant/student/international translation volunteer... Or I might be around just because people fascinate me at a younger age than myself and I like to watch people grow emotionally and intellectually. The photos you can find of me might actually be me... Or they might be someone that I put up and said they were me. I might really be a therianthropic athiest - or I might be a Christian hiding in the pagan and faithless masses to cause trouble. The only person who really knows is me - and even the assurance that I have good intentions shouldn't change your conviction that the only person that knows is me.

Don't hate people for not being themselves, likewise, when they address you online unless they get absurd, dangerous, or illegal. There are self-healing/self-prescribing/safety/etc. reasons for people to change things like their name, gender, age, nationality, and even things as simple as their weight or height. You can't say that you don't enjoy saying you're something you're not if you're a member of the furry fandom - after all, I don't think you're an anthropomorphic animal in real life, though I'd be quite ecstatic to meet you if you really are and all my dreams really could come true.

Everyone has a fetish. Some people are so afraid to develop sexually that they never discover it. Others think it makes you "strange" or "sick". Still others just don't want to admit it... But still, everyone has a sexually driven obsession - everyone has a fetish. How you deal with that as an artist should be a mark of your personal preferences, and not the implications of people that want to press their personalities on you or force you to conform to some standard of normality, because, as XKCD says - [Screw] that [crap]. (Likewise true of many things in life, just saying.)

Pastels, charcoal, soft-lead pencils, graphite, chalk, and many other materials all share one thing in common - they're messy and like to smear. The two easiest solutions I know, either by section, full sheet, or piece to be connected to a larger piece, is spray-on clear acrylic for nearly everything and polyurethane for wood-working art as a clearcoat (polyurethane has a slight brown-orange tint en masse, so use with caution). Make sure, before you apply either, that you are fully done with the piece - it's not impossible to edit later, but it's very difficult, doesn't seem natural, and requires you to add at least that many coats again to the edits later for the same protection. Likewise, 5 or 6 light coats is drastically better than one really thick one, both because it won't be as likely to warp the materials (or smear paints) and you get better average and more even coverage that way.

You're not Don Bluth, Hale Laocon, Blotch, or Walt Disney. I'm not saying it's wrong to have a style like theirs, but it is wrong to try to exactly copy them and then beat yourself up when you can't. All of them had/have their own methods, experiences, bodily physiology, and preferences that determine how they create artwork... How could you possibly match everything that makes them who they are without being exactly them? Lesson: "Imitate, not duplicate."

Likewise, you're not Don Bluth, Hale Laocon, Blotch, or Walt Disney. They didn't learn how to do what they do overnight and you can hedge bets that they were likely just as uncertain as you when they first started, wondering where the fans where and only knowing that drawing was something they liked doing in their various applications.

Of course, if you are any of those four people, you can feel free to strike your name from those last two as you read them. I'm clearly not biased and clearly don't have an opinion or any favorites, and if you believe this sentence is true then you probably need to reread/read the introduction to this post. Likewise remember that I'm human and therefore automatically biased due to both the filter of experience and the filter of emotion.

First edit: Formatting, many spelling errors, finishing a few things I left hanging originally, removal of things either unneeded or else promoting an ill tone.

Second edit:AddingAlexx's notes in the second post, more spelling errors. Word choice errors, a couple dangling bbcode tags, and some grammatical constructs/ambiguity resolution. I'm more than happy to edit until Tuesday.

This is...downright fantastic. Everyone can use this.I do have some additions though.Pixlr is also a online clone of photoshop, and the aviary suite is definitely something to check out.And for animation programs, there is a 2d animation named Plastic Animation Paper (or PAP) that was originally Commercial, but was discontinued and became totally free.

I'm sort of conflicted - It's going to be hard to explain that this is meant as a reference piece rather than something to read end to end... But should I go ahead and add the audio tools that I have sitting in a text document, too? I'd hate to see it be off-topic, but at the same time, I'd hate it to be incomplete as well.

Yes, it has suffered a rename. Glad we could get my mild ego-trip and the mild confusion that tends to cause both out of the way.

I'm sort of conflicted - It's going to be hard to explain that this is meant as a reference piece rather than something to read end to end... But should I go ahead and add the audio tools that I have sitting in a text document, too? I'd hate to see it be off-topic, but at the same time, I'd hate it to be incomplete as well.

Yes, it has suffered a rename. Glad we could get my mild ego-trip and the mild confusion that tends to cause both out of the way.

The furthest I would go out is video and audio editors. Or, you could always make a mini thread in the music section?

2d animation covers most of the video editors I use, save 4 non-linear ones if I just want to hack different chunks together (AMVs, etc).

I'll split the music programs to a separate thread, but it's going to take some time to get them there. The bright sides, instead of strictly editors, I can go ahead and add my sheet editors, synthpads, and maybe even a couple of useful synth players to convert midi to PCM waveforms.

Recently I have been messing around with various programs, just doing stuff. This is a rather nice list of the drawing programs, a few of which I intend on taking a look at now. A nice list you have here.

Thanks. And wow, stuck. And, past the date I can edit it, but nothing to keep this thread from being a catchall if people want to add to it.

Blender's upcoming major release has a less weird interface, and GIMP is getting ready to add a "single window" option that makes it work a lot more like Photoshop (insofar as interface goes)... Other than that, I got nothing right now.

I have never seen this, and I have to say it is a gorgeous thing of beauty and I must hold you momentarily.

haha.

Sincerely though, this is a wonderful compilation of things....I know about most of them (thanks to Alexx, otherwise I would be like ADURRRR on most things digital art wise, to be honest) but for anyone wanting to find art programs and resources this is a fantastic place.

Logged

You are my only luxury itemAnyone try to steal you, I'll fight themLet's go play some hide and seekI know you are a little freakYou look like a playground to me, playa

Thank you very much for doing this list of different programs. It helps a lot. However even though that awesome list is full of great applications, it's missing one commercial program which makes traditional- looking digital art: ArtRage.

I have to thank you again for doing this list! ^^E: Grammar and lack of emoticons

« Last Edit: February 18, 2012, 03:33:41 pm by Pale »

Logged

"One summer morning at sunrise a long time ago I met a little girl with a book under her arm. I asked her why she was out so early and she answered that there were too many books and far too little time. And there she was absolutely right."― Tove Jansson

I will look into this and may recommend its removal if it's installing crapware (or worse). The problem with time is that it tends to damage things, and a lot of the classic complaints about GIMP have been fixed anyway (there's now a single window mode, which was the largest complaint that led to the creation of GIMPshop).

Quote

Gimpshop.com is distributing the original unmodified software, obtained directly from GIMP's repository website, and does not modify it in any way. These installers comply with the original software manufacturer's policies and terms & conditions. DownloadAdmin™ is an install manager, which manages the installation of your chosen software. In addition to managing your download and installation, DownloadAdmin™will offer free popular software that you may be interested in. You are not required to install any additional software to complete your installation of your selected software. You can always completely remove the programs at any time in Windows' Add/Remove Programs.

I'm going to flag this post into the moderation queue and recommend that Gimpshop be removed from the original post due to the toxic change in behavior/stance of the development team. I apologize to users that may have been affected - I can't keep up with everything and I swear it was great once upon a time.

I dunno if this is considered necro posting, but I think someone might want information on art apps that are good on the tablet/phone. (Particularily android Raster apps.)

The more famous one is Autodesk Sketchbook for Galaxy. It runs smooth and the largest picture one can make is 2048, by 2048 [pixels], It has a variety of tools and is fairly stable. It doesn't have many features. It does have layers, and it's blending tools are really useful (I use one in particular to make fur when Ido more realistic art). All the tools are adjustable.

The one that's less known is called Infinite Painter. It's very buggy, BUT, has exceptional features. You can make a custom brush, and it has a kinda okay selection tool. It has a larger selections of tools. But the thing I don't like is that it's airbrush tool kinda sucks. Once again the maximum size is 2048 by 2048 [pixels]. It also has a gradient tool. IT's worth looking into. The saves are bugged, it duplicates layers or switches things around. In conclusion a double edged sword that you would want to save often in.

Character Maker. Character Maker is good when used for drawing anime style people. Well when you want reference this is the app you're looking for. You'll see what I mean when you look at it on the playstore.

The final one is called HDlayer paint. I personally don't use it. It's strange. You can make a bigger image in it, at the cost that the program itself becomes slower and slower. They never removed this black bar at the top, and everyone wants as much drawing space as possible I would think.It has gradients and a customizable tool bar. It's unique, but once again flawed.

Mischief 2.0, 25$ Mischief infinite canvas, but no good tools. (No masks, no Flow setting, No Locked pixels, Not many brushes. But it's fun and easy to use. You might need a more recent computer, some of the brushes that are in the program are a bit slow if you're using a 7 year old Frankenstein HP computer XD

Mangastudio (Aside from Photoshop and other Adobe programs.) For plain drawing and even painting Mangastudio 5 just might top it all. Has advantages over Photoshop in painting/drawing aspect. Mangastudio 5 is about 50 dollars on Amazon. And it seems to be on sale often, if not indefinetly for 37$ This program is definitely worth saving up for.

Art Rage 50$ It's a pure painting program. Personally I don't use it, nor do I like it all that much. A currently featured artist says he loved it. (Doesn't really have masks it seems, though it does have selections) >.>

EDIT: Sorry, I guess I was so used to seeing threads with comments and stuff, that I totally forgot this thread is different. Once again sorry.

And beyond that, threads that I've opened as reference or for projects (not for artwork, but for actual projects) I would certainly never call "dead" - merely "shelved" at most. Being said, you may require intervention if you revive one of my old topics and mods decide it should be considered dead; it has to wait until I get around to it and I'm not around these days much... has a lot to do with being older than this site's usual fair (24) and the current climate both here and in my own life (both a tempest).

I found a few more things! This time these are websites one can use for figure drawing practice! [Also if you shop at Micheals did you know that sometimes the receipts have a coupon that's worth 40% off... (hey the more you know.)]

In any case! If you need to practice muscles in general Pose maniacs have a rather large amount of people without skin [just the human muscle system like the bad guys from attack on titan.] In many poses and each one is rotatable!

And there's pixel lovely. Pixel lovely has a multitude of models posing and they have a training mode that let's you decide how to work. [10 pictures that you have thirty seconds to draw then, 5 pictures you have one minute to draw et.c.] Their is a nude and clothed setting. Please be aware of this, you totally don't want to be caught drawing half naked girls in your sketchbook in a public area >.> this is really good for figure drawing.

Just thought I should add that Photoshop offers 30 day trails with their programs

Logged

Pronouns: he/him/his

You are a very special person. There is only one like you in the whole world. There's never been anyone exactly like you before, and there never will be again. Only You. And people can like you exactly as you are.flatter me • art thread